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'Twas a rave from the Times Higher Education (London) and effectively summarized several of its key concepts. Robert Eaglestone called the book "superb" and "riveting," and better yet, "accessible, historical, and personable." Two weeks before that, Publisher's Weekly gave The Origins of Cool a *starred review -- meaning, keep an eye out for this one The book hits the stores officially in a week (May 17) so get 'em while they're cool. Today's plug: there are two chapters on existential cool through its literary and cinematic avatars, Albert Camus (left) and Humphrey Bogart.

Joel Dinerstein is the author of The Origins of Cool in Postwar America (Chicago 2017), American Cool (Prestel 2014), Coach: A Story of NY Cool (Rizzoli 2016), and Swinging the Machine (2003). I am a Professor of English and American Studies at Tulane University and I've taught a course on The History of Cool for 20 years. I hold a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas (Austin) and my research concerns the relationships of popular culture and modernity, race and American music, and literature and ethnicity.

American Cool was an acclaimed exhibit of 100 cool icons and photographs at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery that I co-curated with Frank Goodyear. My first book was an award-winning cultural history of big-band swing and industrialization, Swinging the Machine: Technology, Modernity, and African-American Culture.

I have served as a consultant on popular music for Putumayo Records, HBO's Boardwalk Empire, and the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities). I was the main architect of Tulane's academic website on New Orleans music and culture, Music Rising at Tulane, http://musicrising.tulane.edu.